


3 Questions

by tirednotwired



Category: Stan the Water Man
Genre: 3 questions to guess my crush, Jimmy shouldn't drive, M/M, Stan has a single braincell, YoU eVeR bEeN iN lOvE, no no words btw, they kiss ew gross, this is a few months old but alright, yeah my ex was a bitch
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-16
Updated: 2019-11-16
Packaged: 2021-01-31 15:55:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,379
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21448804
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tirednotwired/pseuds/tirednotwired
Summary: On their way to deliver water, Stan decides to start up a casual conversation. Turns out he's bad at the casual part and jumps straight to asking Jimmy if he's ever been in love. To make it a bit less serious, they turn in into a game. Jimmy gets three questions to guess Stan's crush. Even if his questions might not seem the great, they make a perfect pair for Stan's single brain cell.
Relationships: Staniel Elizabeth Wheeler/Jimmy "Friendly J" Bending, friendlypack
Comments: 3
Kudos: 37





	3 Questions

The wind whistled by the car as it sped down the highway. Stan began to tap his heel against the ground with anxiety. He hadn't ever exactly been comfortable with Jimmy driving but they didn't have much of a choice. All Stan had was a bike and even if he was able to drive Jimmy's car he'd probably crash it like the many trucks he was supposed to use in delivering water. He grabbed the seat as yet another red light whizzed by. Multiple horns angrily blared in response. If he could simply stay home and never drive anywhere, he wouldn’t exactly do so without hesitation but it would most likely be his choice. Unfortunately, he couldn't.

Today, just like many other days, the duo was on their way to deliver some water. Without the deliveries, they'd have to rely on less legal forms of obtaining cash. It seemed to Stan that the only escape was to start up a small conversation. Stan had never exactly been good at things like that with certain people. He always ended up tripping over his words and biting his tongue. This mainly happened around girls but recently his habit had been getting worse around Jimmy. Stan knew what it meant, he just didn’t like to think about it.

Even now, his face started heating up and his leg bounced faster. "Hey, are you okay?" Stan jumped at the sudden sound of Jimmy's voice. "Your face is really red, Stan." He stumbled for a quick response that wouldn't reveal his thoughts.

"I- uh- yeah I-I'm fine. I probably just need to drink some more water," he said, already pulling a water bottle from his fanny pack and unscrewing the cap. Drinking the cold liquid calmed him down enough for his leg to still and his muscles to loosen up. Even the metallic aftertaste was more helpful than harmful. The bottle empty and his nerves subdued for the moment, Stan placed the bottle at his feet and cleared his throat.

"Nice day for a delivery," Stan remarked simply.

Jimmy nodded and added, "Nice place for a delivery, too. For once, we're not driving across town to possibly get mugged." Stan laughed. There was silence for a few seconds before he tried again.

"Friendly J?" Jimmy glanced over to show he was listening. "Have you ever been in love?" The car's tires screeched as it jerked to the side to swerve out of the way of an oncoming truck. Jimmy yanked the wheel in the opposite direction to correct their coarse once they had scraped past. Once again, the sound of horns filled the air.

"In- in love? Have I ever been in love?" the question had certainly caught him off guard, to say the least. His whole face turned pink and he pushed his glasses further up his nose as if to cover his eyes. "Pshh nah. Like I said earlier, I don't do the whole falling in love, marrying, living with someone thing. It's just not my style,"

There was a hint of disappointment in Stan's voice as he turned back to the window. "Oh, okay,"  
Jimmy smiled. "Well what about you, fanny pack?"

"Hu- what?"

"You ever been in love?" Stan fiddled his thumbs.

"I- maybe? Probably?" He sighed. "Yeah," The smile faded from Jimmy's face.

"Oh, your ex-wife? I'm sorry, Stan. I didn't mean-"

"No, it's fine," Stan cut into Jimmy's sentence. "That wasn't really love. I liked her, that's for sure, but I could never actually fall in love with her. She really was such a bitch, Jimmy. Always making me cook breakfast for her and clean the house. And when Roy was still a wee baby, he'd have cried for days without her batting an eye if I hadn't have taken care of him myself!" The two laughed together.

It was nice. Just sitting in the car with his best friend by his side. A simple yet friendly conversation going on between the two. At this point, Stan didn't even notice the blurred vegetation as it rushed by and the tire squeals from oncoming cars as they tried not to collide.

Jimmy was the next to talk. "Well if it wasn't her, who was it? Even better yet, when was it? I'll bet you one hundred bucks I can guess who your crush is." The small smile on Stan's face grew wider.

"Listen, J. You're a wonderful guesser but I don't think you'll get this one."

"Aha! So you ARE still in love! See? I didn't even ask a question yet and I've already got some information!" Stan playfully punched his friend in the arm. "Ow, Stan! Torture is against the rules, you should know that," Jimmy faked a hurt expression which only made Stan laugh more.

"Well you know what else is a rule? You only get three questions to guess who I love," Stan realized what he had just said and who he had said it to. "Eh- well- if I am in love, that is. Maybe I'm not. Maybe I just don't know what love is, so I'm not really in love. Really, the only person I’ve ever come close to loving romantically was my ex-wife and I already told you that I didn’t really love her. So, ya know, maybe that’s happening again," he gushed, trying to somewhat discourage Jimmy. He was his only real friend. If things got weird between them, Stan would be left all alone and he never wanted that again. However, just as he was about to continue his jumbled speech, Jimmy cut in with a two simple, staccato words.

”Three. Questions,” Reluctantly, Stan nodded. The game of feelings had begun and it was Stan’s that were the goal. ”Alright, first question, ” Jimmy sat there for a bit thinking about what would make a good first question. In his mind, it would make the most sense for something that would narrow it down as far as possible without being too pinpoint. ”Hair colour,”

Stan was quick to answer ”Brown,” almost too quick, it seemed. Jimmy shook his head.

”I wasn’t finished,”

”Oh, sorry, I thought that was it. Continue your question, then,” 

”Hair dye counts,” He knew a few people with unnaturally coloured hair. Anything that eliminated some people from being possible answers was good. Next he would ask eye colour. Stan was still silent. Maybe he didn’t know if they had dyed hair because it was always hidden. Kiki always had a hat on so she was a possibility. Maybe it was one of those people- bird, clown, bear or something like that. They had masks on so you couldn’t see their hair. But that didn’t make much sense based on the fact that they used both Jimmy and Stan as human bullet shields in a bank robbery. But before he had time to go further into thought, Stan finally answered.

“I’d say teal probably. Could be green or blue. Depends on how you see it,” as soon as he was done speaking he turned his face to the window so that Jimmy couldn’t see anything but the back of his head.

“Ok next question. Eye colou- wait. Teal?” Jimmy ran his hand through his very teal coloured hair. He didn’t know of anyone else with that sort of hair dye. Then again, Stan hadn’t moved to Los Santos until just a few weeks ago. Maybe it was someone from wherever he used to live. Jimmy decided to change his question. “Forget what I started saying. Next question,” There was a small nod from Stan. “Where do they live?”

Stan whipped around to face Jimmy with some sort of scared, confused, concerned expression. Jimmy realized how bad that sounded. “Woah woah woah I don’t mean it like that! I don’t want their address or anything! I just mean do they live here, in Los Santos, or somewhere else? Maybe where you used to live?” Stan sighed with relief and almost visibly shrank from his tense, upright position.

“They live here. I didn’t actually know many people before I lived here,” once again it took Stan a few seconds to realize who he was saying these things to but when it clicked the red in his face came back at full power. Jimmy only caught a glimpse of it before Stan returned to the interesting world outside. He swore he was nearly glowing. Then he went back to thinking about the questions and answers he’d just been presented with. They lived here? They had teal hair? Who else lived here that had teal hair? Was it possible he simply didn’t know them or was Stan talking about him? Though that idea was quickly brushed away. The guy had had a wife. He had a son. Whether it was his or not was up for debate (sort of) but nonetheless, he had been in a committed relationship with a girl. Jimmy knew bisexuals were a thing but for all he knew Stan was completely straight.

He shook his head. He was getting too far off topic. The real issue he should be facing is the fact that he only had one question left and then he’d have to start naming off people. “Oh, another rule,” Stan voice broke into his thoughts. “You can only name off one person after you’re done with the questions. After that I won’t tell you the truth even if you guess my crush,” Well perfect! Now he had one question left and only one guess to who Stan’s possible lover could be!

“This is great,” fuck he said that outloud. Until now, Jimmy had thought that doing something like that was a myth. Something thought up by hopeless romantics, fanfic writers, or hopeless romantic fanfic writers. He glanced over at Stan. Thankfully, he hadn’t seemed to notice or if he had, he didn’t react on it. Then, out of the jumble that was Jimmy’s mind, a final question came to him. It wasn’t the greatest, but it would work.

“Last question, Stan. This one is for all the money. Or… cheddar as you sometimes call it?” kind of unnecessary, but Jimmy wanted to ask his final question with Stan facing him. There wasn’t even an actual reason to that either. Maybe he just liked looking into Stan’s brilliant blue eyes that shone like little pools of water perfectly reflecting the sun’s rays. Of course, he couldn’t think about that now. Not unless he wanted to stop functioning altogether. To his relief, Stan did turn around at the comment. The ends of his lips were curved into a small smile.

“What’s their favorite animal?” Jimmy knew it sounded simple but that was part of the plan. All he would have to do is ask anyone with teal hair who lived in Los Santos what their favorite animal was and if he came across someone with a matching favorite animal, bingo! Plus, such an easily answered question might throw Stan off. Might think that Jimmy had given up altogether and was using his last question for a fun fact.

As Jimmy had hoped, the response was almost immediate. “Huh, never actually asked before. What’s your favorite animal, Jimmy?” Now it was Jimmy’s turn to glow a tomato red. If it was even possible for his driving to get any more reckless than it already was, it did just that. The actual process of his words took a second but then hit Stan like a bus.

“God- I didn’t- I mean- it wasn’t meant like that, that’s not- I wasn’t- I just- it was just a little question, you know? Nothing- nothing at all to do with what we were just talking about. Nope. Just doing some little trivia, right? Just-” he realized it was probably best to stop talking completely. He also decided that a crimson face wasn’t too great of a thing to have so he covered it with his hands. Then he felt his weight shift as the car jerked to the side. More than usual, he might add, given how a car driven by either of them was not likely to be driving smoothly. When he looked up, Jimmy had pulled over, parked on the side of the road and was unbuckling his seatbelt.

And for the first time ever, Stan felt like he was about to lose someone he loved. Someone he couldn’t live without. Sure, he lost his son, but that had always been a one-sided sort of relationship. Now there was a two-sided relationship that mattered greatly to Stan about to slip away from him. Jimmy was opening the car door and stepping out. “Wait- no- please, Jimmy! I swear I didn’t mean it that way! Please- wait!” Stan tossed off his seatbelt and threw open the car door. He was standing up so quickly he started seeing stars. When he regained his vision, Jimmy was standing right in front of him. His expression was unreadable. Stan couldn’t even see anything in his eyes which were now uncovered. He wasn’t sure when Jimmy decided to take off his sunglasses but that was a less important question for another time.

“Jimmy?” At once, Jimmy’s hands which had previously been at his sides were up, grabbing Stan’s face, and crashing it into his own. Stan tensed up, startled by the sudden movement. But for once, it didn’t take him too long to process what was happening. His eyes closed as he melted into the kiss. He wrapped his arms around Jimmy’s waist and pulled himself closer. When they broke apart they were both smiling. It was the first time Stan ever felt loved and he couldn’t get enough of it. He pulled Jimmy back in for another kiss which was gladly accepted. And, even as the cars sped by, even as the wind played with their hair, even as the sun began to set over the city, the two stayed where they were, finally satisfied and happy. Yet the moment had to cease at some point and when it did, the shine in their eyes said everything.

Jimmy’s phone buzzed in his pocket. When he pulled it out and glanced at the now lit up screen, he smiled. “So how about that water delivery, sunshine?”


End file.
